A farming union has written to Michael Gove calling on him to support a proposed change to European rules on TSE controls that could help strip out unnecessary costs from the sheep sector.
Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of degenerative fatal diseases affecting the sheep's brain.
Regulations for the monitoring of TSEs were brought in as a related precaution alongside BSE controls following the BSE crisis of the mid-1990s.
Now, the European Commission is proposing a draft amendment to TSE controls, which is expected in February.
The regulation requires the removal of Specified Risk Material (SRM) from the carcases of all sheep slaughtered for human consumption. The parts of a sheep presently specified as SRM vary between sheep aged under 12 months and sheep aged over 12 months.
However, sheep are only identified as being older than 12 months through what NFU Scotland says as "time-consuming and inaccurate" dentition inspections of each sheep’s mouth to check for the emergence of permanent incisors.
'Costly and inaccurate'
In writing to Defra Secretary Michael Gove, NFU Scotland President Andrew McCornick said the current method is "costly and inaccurate"
He said: “The proposed amendment would permit other methods to identify the age of sheep. This welcome move would give regulators the flexibility to use a method best suited to the UK industry.
“The current method of checking teeth for permanent incisor eruption is costly and inaccurate. Industry has previously explored alternative methods including using a cut-off date each year, after which animals would be regarded as being older than 12 months.
“The proposed amendment would not change the current requirement in the UK to split carcasses of sheep over 12 months to remove the spinal cord – undoubtedly one of the biggest costs to the UK sheep industry.
“In the UK it is an offence to remove the spinal cord from older sheep other than by splitting the whole vertebral column or removing a section of the whole vertebral column including the spinal cord. Other EU states only require the removal of as much SRM as possible, while in the UK, 100% SRM removal is compulsory.”
Mr McCornick said that comes at a "significant additional cost" to the UK sheep industry and, in the union's letter to Mr Gove, NFU Scotland has asked for the UK Government to give domestic regulators greater flexibility in this area.
